


Detective Lying Bedmon

by emc2spaam



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Murder Mystery, Murdoch Mysteries AU, Possibly some homophobic slurs, Will change rating if need be, alcohol mention, drug mention, or just Late 19th century murder mystery AU, will add more tags as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 16:10:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7112962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emc2spaam/pseuds/emc2spaam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(working title)</p>
<p>Lying Bedmon is one of Bristol's finest detectives. When he is called upon to investigate the murder of a prominent CEO, he finds himself delving both into the dark side of business and into the homosexual community. Will he and his trusty sidekick Constable Fuzz solve the case? And will Lying figure out just how he feels for the coroner, Doctor David Kirin?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One: A Murder Most Foul

On a sweltering day in the middle of August, Mrs. Nano Lividcoffee bundled up a few papers from her desk to take to her boss, Mr. William Strife. She was his secretary, and several various invoices and reports were ready to be taken into his office. She walked briskly down the short hallway to Mr. Strife's office and knocked on the door. When Nano received no reply, she called through the door, asking if everything was alright. She sighed, figuring that Mr. Strife had been at the bottle again and was asleep, so she pushed open the heavy oak door. Upon looking into the room, Nano promptly screamed. 

A short while later, a man of thin build, dressed in the hight of fashion, sporting long, blond hair, and known as Detective Lying Bedmon entered the office amidst a flurry of activity. By the desk, a constable took photographs of the body as another took a statement from Mrs. Lividcoffee. Once the photographs were taken and the heavy camera moved away, another constable with short, brown hair came to stand next to the body. The detective moved to stand near them.  
"Constable Fuzz, what do we have here?" He asked, giving the corpse a once-over with his eyes.  
"Well, sir, our victim is Mr. William Strife, owner of Strife Solutions. It appears that he was killed by a knife to the back." Fuzz gestured to the black handle of a blade sticking out of Mr. Strife's back. "It also looks like he'd been drinking." They pointed at the empty bottle of whiskey. Lying pulled out a handkerchief and used it to turn the bottle in the corpse's hand so that he could read the label.  
"Expensive. It seems Mr. Strife had good taste." A small gift tag on the bottle's neck caught his eye. "Or, rather, whoever gave this to him does." He turned to the constable. "Fuzz, once the body is removed, I want everything out of the desk."  
"Understood, sir." Fuzz said. As they turned away to speak with another constable, someone new came into the office.

To call Dr. David Kirin tall would be an understatement. The man towered over any room he entered in a manner that forced everyone to look up to him. On top of that, he was always smiling, like a cheerful tree, and that's how he was when he came upon the crime scene.  
"Hello detective, I hope I'm not too late." He said to Lying as his assistants began to ready the stretcher.  
"No, Dr. Kirin, you're right on time." Lying smiled a bit, it was impossible for him not to in Kirin's presence.  
"Excellent!" Dr. Kirin began examining the body, moving limbs, checking pallor, and such. "Judging by temperature and rigor, I'd say that Mr. Strife has been dead for four to eight hours." He concluded.  
"So, he's been dead since the middle of the workday." Detective Lying mused.  
"I'll know more once I've finished the post-mortem. Am I free to take the body?" Dr. Kirin asked. Lying nodded, then used his handkerchief to remove the bottle from Strife's hand. The assistants pulled the body onto the stretcher and carried it out of the office, with Kirin following close behind. Once Kirin had left, Lying went over to the distraught woman blotting her eyes with a handkerchief on the side of the room.  
"Hello ma'am. I am Detective Lying Bedmon. And you are...?" He said.  
"Mrs. Nano Lividcoffee. I am, or, was, Mr. Strife's secretary." She tucked her handkerchief into her purse.  
"Do you know of anyone who would wish to harm Mr. Strife? A business associate, perhaps?"  
"Mr. Strife had many associates, but a few were coming in more as of late. Mr. Chris Sips and Mr. Reginald Dog chief among them." Nano paused. "There's also Mr. Strife's friend who visited him often during business hours."  
"A friend? Might you be able to tell me what his name is?" Lying took a few notes, writing the names of the businessmen.  
"His name is Alexander Parvis. He's a musician. I believe he plays the violin in the Royal Orchestra." Nano replied. Lying wrote down his name and closed his notebook. As he was writing, a stocky man with disheveled blond hair and dressed in a stained, white lab coat was stopped by constables at the doorway. He looked distressed and was peering into the chaotic office. His features relaxed slightly when he laid eyes on Mrs. Lividcoffee. Lying noticed the look on the woman's face when she saw the man, and took this to mean that he was her husband coming to take her home. Lying decided that it was best to stop asking questions and to let the poor woman go home.  
"Thank you, Mrs. Lividcoffee. Good day." Detective Lying put on his hat and took leave of the office.

Once he was back at the station house, Lying wasted no time in getting all of the evidence laid out on the large table he kept in the middle of his office. The first thing he looked at was the empty bottle of whiskey found in the victim's hand. It was a fine brand, and a pricey one to boot, but the little paper tag on the neck of the bottle was the most interesting part. It read 'from Zoeya, with love' and on the back of the card was a stamped logo for the brewery, Dog's Head Brewing Company. He looked into the bottle and poured what little was left into a glass. Lying swirled and sniffed the liquid, crinkling his nose in disgust at the off odor, it smelled faintly of almonds. Just as he was thinking about what might be the cause of the smell, Constable Fuzz knocked on the door to the office and stepped inside.  
"The contents of Mr. Strife's desk, sir. Oh, and Dr. Kirin is ready for you at the morgue." Fuzz said as they looked at the glass on the desk. "Sir, are you going to..."  
"No, Fuzz, I'm not going to drink it. Now, while I'm gone, could you head over to Dog's Head Brewery and look through their purchase records for anyone named Zoeya who sent a bottle to Mr. Strife? I'll join you as soon as I finish up with Dr. Kirin." Lying asked as he took his hat off of the rack by his door.  
"Of course, sir." Fuzz replied. They quickly walked out of the office to do as they were told.

Detective Lying put his hat up on the skeleton-turned-coatrack that stood next to Dr. Kirin's desk. The doctor himself was standing next to the opened body of the late CEO.  
"Ah, detective, there you are! I have found several things in and on the body of our friend, Mr. Strife." Dr. Kirin said cheerily as Lying came to observe the body.  
"Do tell, doctor." Lying responded, silently wondering how on Earth a coroner could be so cheery. Dr. Kirin led Lying over to the work station that took up the middle of the morgue. Several different containers held things that had come from the body.  
"Well, I analyzed the stomach contents first. As you would expect, there was mostly alcohol in there." Kirin moved over a bit to a small dish containing some red powder. "This was found in the victim's nostrils, lungs, and under his fingernails. I don't know exactly what it is, but I assume it to be some kind of drug." Kirin then grabbed a tray covered by a cloth. With a slight air of dramatics, Kirin pulled the cloth off. Underneath was the knife that had been lodged firmly in Mr. Strife's back.  
"Whoever put that in the victim had excellent taste in weaponry, and the money to get such a finely-crafted blade." Detective Lying remarked. He knew that the knife was worth likely more than his yearly salary, he could tell by the careful and detailed silvery inlays in the black leather grip. Dr. Kirin donned a pair of work gloves and moved the knife into a cloth evidence bag. Lying took it with a nod of thanks.  
"The last thing, detective, I found these bruises on the body. A few of them had bite marks in them. I believe them to be..." Kirin cleared his throat, trying to figure out a polite way to say it. "Love bites." He finished. Detective Lying considered this.  
"So, Mr. Strife had a lover. The question is, did this lover kill him?" He mused. "If you'll excuse me, doctor, I must go and meet with Constable Fuzz." With that, the two bid farewell to one another.


	2. Chapter Two: Of Spirits and Sexuality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Detective Lying and Constable Fuzz head over to the Dog's Head brewery, and the detective reads some interesting letters.

"Ah, sir, how good it is that you came here so soon. I'm afraid the workmen don't appreciate my presence." They said. After asking a worker for directions to the manager, Lying and Fuzz began to walk in the direction of the building that the workman had pointed to.   
"Sir, you won't believe the trouble they gave me earlier. A well-dressed man came by and he wouldn't answer my questions unless you were here!" Fuzz said. Lying gave Fuzz a sympathetic look as they reached the building. Inside, a man with very blue eyes smiled at them from behind his desk.   
"Hello, hello! Welcome to Dog's Head Brewery! I'm Mister Xephos. Can I offer you a sample?" The man, Mr. Xephos, said. The smile vanished when Lying showed the man his badge. Mr. Xephos' face became more serious, but he still managed a small smile.  
"What can I do for you? I'm assuming that this is about Mr. Strife. Poor man. Mr. Dog was quite distraught when he heard the news, he was. Paced about in here for hours, going on about what would become of their business with each other." He said.  
"And what business would this be?" Detective Lying inquired.  
"Stocks, mostly. A few acres of land that Mr. Dog was leasing to grow hops on. Sometimes Mr. Strife would help Mr. Dog out with a small business issue in exchange for a bottle or two." The man replied. It was a nice change to have someone willing to answer questions about their boss. The man had a slightly high-strung demeanor, but seemed very genuine. Lying had a passing thought about how much Mr. Xephos' eyes of Dr. Kirin's. But, that thought was a strange one, and Lying decided not to consider it too much.  
"Do you, perchance, send out bottles as gifts?" Lying asked. The man nodded. "Do you have a record of who sent out these gifts?"   
"Yes, we do keep record of those. Repeat customers can get discounts, so we have to keep track of receipts." Mr. Xephos came out from behind his desk. The man was quite tall, almost as tall as Dr. Kirin. He picked up the stool he had been sitting on behind the desk and moved it to in front of a large bookcase. He removed a large, leather-bound book that managed to be too high up for even such a tall man to reach and brought it back over to the desk, along with the stool. Mr. Xephos sat back onto his stool and laid the book open on the desk for Detective Lying and Constable Fuzz to see.   
"Is there any name in particular that you gents are looking for?" He asked.  
"Someone by the name of Zoeya. And, if I may ask, why are you so willing to give up information? You could incriminate your boss, you know." Lying was determined to find out why the man was so happy to share what he knew. Xephos turned to one of the last pages, running his finger along the list of names that started with X's, Y's, and Z's. After a few moments, he tapped one of the names.   
"Mr. Dog would want me to be honest and helpful. Those were the qualities he hired me for." Mr. Xephos replied. "We've only got one in here with the name of Zoeya. Zoeya Proasheck." Detective Lying took out his notebook and jotted down the address listed under the name. Fuzz did the same.  
"Thank you, Mr. Xephos. You have been most helpful." Lying said, tipping his hat to the man. Mr. Xephos did the same, and waved the two farewell as they left the building. Once they had walked a little ways away, Lying turned to Constable Fuzz.  
"Constable, I want you to do some sniffing around and try to find out what Ms. Proasheck's relationship to Mr. Strife was. I'm going back to the station to examine some evidence." Lying instructed. Fuzz nodded in understanding, and with that, the two parted ways. Lying to his office, and Fuzz to scrounge up some gossip on the streets.

Back in his office, the detective started out with the knife. He dusted the entire thing for prints, and he found nothing, not even a part of one. The lack of wear on the grip told him that the blade had probably never been used before. However, an unused blade did not just end up in a man's back. Whoever had stabbed Mr. Strife had to have been wearing gloves. Lying held the knife under a magnifier and confirmed his theory about the gloves. One of the bits of metal inlaid on the grip had a few white fibers caught in it. He removed them with a pair of tweezers and placed them in a test tube.   
Next, Lying began sorting through the contents of Mr. Strife's desk. He spent an hour filing business papers of no immediate importance before he found something interesting. A small stack of letters from an A. Parvis was on top of a locked box. Lying read through the letters. They weren't particularly interesting, just a correspondence between friends. Parvis occasionally asked how Ms. Proasheck was doing, but that was the only thing of note. He then turned his attention to the box. It was held shut by two locks. Lying, who was not very skilled at lock-picking, tried a few times before he fetched the wedge and hammer. Inside the box was more letters from Mr. Parvis. The letters started out with just a bit of raunchy humor, but as he progressed through the stack, the letters went from raunchy, to suggestive, then to downright explicit. Lying could feel his face heating up, but for some reason, he couldn't put the letters down. As he read, he saw the vibrantly blue eyes and perpetually messy blond hair of Dr. Kirin, which was very troubling. He prayed that no one saw him, especially not Kirin, and then the Inspector barged into his office.  
Inspector Honeydew was a short man, even shorter than Detective Lying. He boasted a large, ginger beard, a short temper, and a very loud voice to go with it. He trotted over to Lying's desk and tried to peer over his shoulder, which was a very hard thing for him to do because of his size.   
"Right. Show me what you've got there, Bedmon." The Inspector took the paper out of Lying's hands and read them over. He let out a low whistle when he was done. "That's, er, quite dirty. I suspect that you're thinking this violinist was Mr. Strife's lover, then?" Lying nodded, thankful that the Inspector had read his case notes and thus saved him from having to explain. Lying rubbed his face with his hands as Constable Fuzz entered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be nice if you leave comments! I am a delicate babbu =o=


	3. Chapter Three: Here Comes The Bride, But Not Dressed In White

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Inspector Honeydew and the detective pay a visit to Mr. Chris Sips and his step-daughter.

"Sir, I've found out something very interesting. Ms. Proasheck is- Sir, are you alright?" Fuzz asked.  
"He's fine, just a bit overset." The Inspector interjected with a firm slap to Lying's back. "Go on, Fuzz, tell us what you've got." Fuzz cleared their throat.  
"Well, sirs, it appears that Ms. Proasheck was Strife's affianced." 

A hush fell over Detective Lying's office as the three people inside it began to think about what Fuzz's new bit of information meant for the case. The detective was the one to speak up first.   
"I take it that this was an arranged marriage?" He asked.  
"Yes, it was. Ms. Proasheck is the stepdaughter of Mr. Chris Sips, one of Mr. Strife's business associates." Fuzz replied. Inspector Honeydew tutted.  
"Such a shame, these young ladies married off like they're just chips in a business-politick poker game. It ain't right." He sighed. "I think I'm rather lucky that Daisy married me for love, you know." The Inspector lapsed into thinking about his wife, who was the only reason that any of the potted plants in the station were still alive.   
"Perhaps Ms. Proasheck felt the same way. She might have killed Mr. Strife to prevent the marriage." Fuzz suggested. Lying nodded in approval of Fuzz's deduction.  
"That could be true," He said. "But, why would she be so desperate to end an arrangement that would have brought her considerable fortune?" The three contemplated on this for a moment. Lying walked over to his chalkboard, twirling a new stick of white chalk between his fingers, and he wrote a list of suspects on the black surface. Next to the names, he wrote down the possible motives next to each name. Some of the names had nothing next to them.   
"I believe that Ms. Proasheck may have had a lover." Lying turned to the other two people in the room. He opened his mouth to say something else, when a commotion started in the entry of the station house. Two constables were dragging a struggling man in. He was tall, lanky, with tan skin, and brown hair with a blond streak. A green pendant swung from his neck and glinted in the light. Lying could see the dark oval in the middle of the pendant, a slit pupil. Lying wondered if that meant that the man had some kind of gang or cult connection. From his slurred shouts, it was clear that the man was drunk. As he was brought into the cells, another constable came into Lying's office.   
"Found that one lurking 'round the Strife Solutions building. Seemed like he was looking for something. Brought him in on public drunkenness, but I thought that you might want to speak to him, Detective." He said.  
"Thank you, Constable Littlewood." Lying nodded to the man. Littlewood ducked out of the office to file the arrest papers.   
"I suppose you'll have to wait for him to sober up before you can question him. Fuzz, you go help Littlewood. The detective and I will go pay Ms. Proasheck a visit." Inspector Honeydew grabbed his hat and was out the door. Lying had to jog a bit to catch up. For a short man, Honeydew was very fast.

The address they had gathered from the brewery took the detective and the inspector to a large mansion surrounded by lush forest. A butler showed them to the front parlor and brought them tea while they waited for Mr. Sips and Ms. Proasheck. After a couple cups of tea, Mr. Sips came in. He was dressed in sedate colors, mostly grays. His black cravat indicated that he was in mourning for his would-be son-in-law. Lying and Honeydew stood when he entered. He shook both of their hands and then sat down. The other two men did the same.  
"Well, to what do I owe the pleasure of speaking to Bristol's finest?" He smiled. Lying took out his notepad.  
"Mr. Sips, we would like to ask you and your stepdaughter a few questions concerning the death of Mr. William Strife." Inspector Honeydew got right to the point. Mr. Sips sighed, crossing his legs.  
"Well, sirs, he was a great man. It's gotta be said. I was proud to be his father-in-law, or, I would have been. I taught him all that he knew. So, ask away." He said. Detective Lying jotted down some notes.  
"Did he have any enemies?" Lying asked.  
"Enemies? He had rivals, sure, every successful businessman does, but enemies? I can't say he did. Might've had a few disgruntled employees, though."  
"I see... Would you know if Mr. Strife had any lovers, Mr. Sips?" Inspector Honeydew stroked his beard in thought.  
"Now, let me think. His secretary was married, but that doesn't always matter." Mr. Sips chuckled. "That violinist visited him pretty often. What I mean to say is, he visited far more frequently than one usually pays social calls. Strife may not have loved him, but he may have loved Strife."   
"Speaking of lovers," Lying cleared his throat. "Would your daughter happen to have one?" Mr. Sips looked a bit offended. "I don't mean to speak ill of your daughter, but I must pursue all possible lines of investigation." Mr. Sips nodded.  
"Well, I don't think she does." He paused. "Now that I think about it, she does attend a 'Ladies Embroidery Circle' or something, but her embroidery never improves or produces. For how long she's been going, I should be drowning in throw pillows." As if on cue, a young woman in a black dress burst into the room. The first thing that caught detective Lying's eye was her almost-unnaturally red hair. The second thing was her necklace. Around her neck was a pendant of a round, purple eye with a slit pupil. It brought the image of the drunken man that Constable Littlewood had brought in to his mind. He made a quick note of this before looking up at the woman who had just entered.  
"Father, sirs, I apologize for being so late." She smoothed the pleats of her skirts down and sat down daintily near Mr. Sips.  
"Zoey, this is Inspector Simon Honeydew and Detective Lying Bedmon. They're here about Mr. Strife. Sirs, this is my stepdaughter, Ms. Zoeya Proasheck." Mr. Sips smiled at his stepdaughter. Both of the other men nodded at her in respect. Her entirely black outfit told the men that she was in deep mourning, as a widow might be. Inspector Honeydew glanced at Lying, then at Ms. Proasheck's dress, and raised an eyebrow. It was clear that he thought that her show of deep mourning was a bit too much for someone who wasn't yet married, nor in the marriage for love. Detective Lying felt the same. Ms. Proasheck was overdoing it, either by her stepfather's prompting, or to make it seem that she was more upset about Strife's death than she really was.   
"Pleased to meet you!" The young woman smiled. Her hands were clasped in her lap, the knuckles white from how tightly she was holding them together. She was clearly nervous about something.   
"Ms. Proasheck, I hear that you have an interest in embroidery. My wife, she's got her little projects and pieces all over the house. Do you keep yours elsewhere or...?" The inspector asked. Lying was impressed that the inspector was being so covert. Mr. Sips looked impressed, too. Ms. Proasheck just nodded and tried to look meek.   
"Yes, I keep a few in my room, but I give most of them away." She said. She was beginning to shake a bit. Lying decided to change the subject.   
"Ms. Proasheck, forgive me for being so... personal, but, your necklace, did you receive it from a lover?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked this? Please leave a comment! =3=

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction! Please be nice if you leave a comment =u=


End file.
